Supplying the chemical and energy industry with sustainable energy carriers is key for a successful transition to a climate-neutral economy. Currently, as most of the basic chemicals are based on fossil sources, the transition of chemical processes on an industrial scale cannot be achieved only by electrification and efficiency-increasing measures. Substituting carbon demands by biomass or waste as feedstock is identified as an important factor of the ongoing transition. Among the possible products, methanol has been recognized as one of the most promising intermediate products. Simultaneously, the electricity sector will need flexible power delivery to balance volatile renewable power generation. While each problem has been individually investigated to a certain extent, a comprehensive examination addressing both issues through a unified process has not been extensively explored. Here a simulation-based case study on how polygeneration of methanol and electricity from residual biomass could be used in a system serving way is shown. The specific production costs are calculated by modelling the process of a 100 MW and a 250 MW entrained flow gasification-based polygeneration plant in Aspen Plus®, followed by a state-of-the-art economic assessment. While the methanol synthesis is scaled to 100% of the thermal feedstock input, the electricity production via syngas-fuelled gas turbine is limited to 20% of the total capacity. This ensures a constant methanol production while simultaneously being able to offer regulating power to the electricity market. The results of the specific production costs range between 0.87-1.13 € kg-1 for methanol and 0.42-0.93 € kWh-1 for electricity, depending on the system boundary conditions. While in the case of methanol production, the costs are in a comparable range as suggested in existing literature, the electricity costs are quite high due to the expensive gasification and gas conditioning process. However, due to the increasingly frequent high price peaks on the spot market for electricity, the high production costs can reach an economic range. This demonstrates how polygeneration of methanol and power can be used to increase the viability of biomass or waste utilisation in large-scale plants in a volatile overarching energy system. Further evaluation of the results regarding, e.g., CO2 abatement costs and further business case possibilities are considered. An analysis of methanol production and end-of-life emissions as CO2 abatement costs shows that, at well over 200 € tCO2-1, there is no direct competition with German national and European certificate trading. Nevertheless, it can be summarised that the polygeneration of electricity and methanol from biogenic residues can represent a business case if the overall system is considered.
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Supplying the chemical and energy industry with sustainable energy carriers is key for a successful transition to a climate-neutral economy. Currently, as most of the basic chemicals are based on fossil sources, the transition of chemical processes on an industrial scale cannot be achieved only by electrification and efficiency-increasing measures. Substituting carbon demands by biomass or waste as feedstock is identified as an important factor of the ongoing transition. Among the possible produ...
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